10 i0i.o /lao 9^0 D 



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pH83 



CJ " i 



ALLEGHAN'IA: 



A GEOGRAPHICAL AKD STATISTICAL MEMOIR. 



EXHIBITING THE STRENGTH OF THE UNION, AND THE 

WEAKNESS OF SLAVERY, IN THE MOUNTAIN 

DISTRICTS OF THE SOUTH. 



BY JAMES W. TAYLOE. 



SAINT PAUL: 
■»UBLISHED BY JAMES DAVENPORT. 

1862. 






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^0^ 



THIS MEMOIR 



IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO 



GENERAL RANDOLPH B. MARCT, U.S.A. 



AUTHOR OF "THE EXPLORATION OF THE RED RIVER OF. 
LOUISIANA," "THE PRAIRIE TRAVELLER," Ac, 4c. 



AS AN EVIDENCE 

OP THE GENERAL APPRECIATION OF THE VALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATUBAI. 
HISTORY OF THE WEST ABOVE NAMED ; 

AS A SOUVENIR 

OP GENERAL MARCV's RESIDENCE IN SAINT PAUL, AND THE REGARD IN WHICH HB 13 
HELD BY HIS FRIENDS IN MINNESOTA ; 

AND AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

OP HIS CLEAR AND PROPHETIC VIEWS OF THE REBELLION NOW FLAGRANT, 

AND THE DESIGNS OF ITS LEADERS, WHICH HE WAS 

ACCUSTOMED TO EXPRESS LONG IN ADVANCE 

OF THE EVENTS OF 1861. 



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PREFACE. 



This pamphlet consists of papers communicated to the " Saint Paul 
Dailj Press," during the month ending December 15, 1861. 

As reprinted in the present form, the writer is aware that they are 
discursive — too much like a diary of current events. Considerable 
repetition, also, is unavoidable in a serial publication of this kind. 

The tables have been arrano-ed without the aid of the Census of 
1860, still in course of compilation at Washingfon, and which will 
probably demonstrate that the slave population of the Southern 
Alleghany region has relatively diminished since 1850. The ratio of 
slave to free is certainly less, now than then, in West Virginia. The 
Sapsrintendent of ths Census would furnish a document, valuable 
politically and for military use, if he would anticipate the publication 
of this portion of his voluminous budget. The weakness of Slavery, 
in its war against the Union, will be found in two important facts ; (1.) 
that within the immense district to which the designation of AUe- 
ghania is here applied, the slaves are so few and scattered as to suggest 
the expediency of emancipation to the loyal State legislatures, with 
whioh the Government and Army of the United States must co- 
operate ; while (2,) within those districts of the Atlantic and Gulf 
Coasts, where the Rjballion is obstinate, the number of slaves is so 
excessive, as to paralyze the military operations of the rebels against a 



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yl PREFACE. 

rapid and vigorous series of coast-wise attacks. Every insurgent State 
may thus have its Beaufort. 

The West will, for the present, be content with relief to the loyaj 
populations of the b'onth, who have distinctly pronounced for the 
Union. And in what direction do events more decisively point, for 
the execution of this object, than over Cumberland Gap, to the Heart 
of the Alleghanies ? The occupation of the Railroad from Memphis 
to Richmond would be the dismemberment, forerunning the speedy 
subjugation, of the Rebel Confederacy. 

This brochure is submitted as a geographical and statistical study 
merely, without attempting to elaborate some important questions 
which it suggests. For instances, the Cotton question is closely related 
to the brief sketch of the AUeghanian Uplands of the Carolinas, 
Georgia and Alabama ; and the political idea of Representation by 
Population instead-cf Capital, is of itself sufficient to work a Counter 
Rovolution in those States ; but the writer is not in a situation to 
discuss those questions as their importance demands. 

Fortunately the "Cotton Kingdom," of Frederick Law Olmstead, is 
just published; and the closing paragraphs of President Lincoln's 
Message opens the discussion upon the Relations of Labor and Capital 
to the structure of Government, in a manner to excite popular interest, 
and to encourage the investigations of those who are competent to 
entertain and exhaust the subject. 

It is hoped that the following notes, however imperfect in form and 
substance, will be admitted to justify the writer's confidence that the 
Nation holds, within the limits of the insurgent States, very import- 
ant elements and instruments for a Counter Revolution of those States. 
The " Back Country," or Alleghany Districts of the States East of 
the Misissippi, the French and Creole population of Louisiana, and 



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PREFACE. vi^ 

the German or grazing counties of Western Texas, will pronounce for 
the Union whenever the Army and Kavj of the United States shall 
afford the protection against insurrection and the guaranty of Re- 
publican institutions which the Constitution enjoins upon the General 
Government. In those localities and in the dispositions of the inhabit- 
ants, the Rebellion has no firm foundation. On the contrary, they are 
ripe and ready to follow the instructive precedent established in "West 
Virginia. As in England, a tyrannical dynasty was once assumed to 
abdicate its authority, so the Constitution of the United States contains 
ample provision for its own vindication against the existing usurpa- 
tion; and the policy of the administration, as illustrated at Wheeling, 
will promptly second the Military arm by an efficient recognition of 
legitimate action as States by the loyal masses of the South. Thus 
may it happen most auspiciously and at no distaat dc te, that the 
patriotic masses of an outraged people will be the foremost agency in 
the suppression of the insurrection. Shall it not be first in order 
to give them the opportunity ? 



" First pure, then peaceable." — James iii, 17. 

"Not only does tlie Christian religion, but Nature herself, cry out against the state 
of slavery." — Pope Leo X. 

" Heaven has allowed us to live long enough to witness the second regeneration of 
Eussia. * * A new spirit animates us, a new era has commenced. One of our social 
conditions is on the eve of change. If we consider it in a past light, we may perhaps 
admit that it was necessary that it should have been allowed to be as it was, from the 
want of a better administrative organization, and of the concentration in the hands of a 
government of the means which have since given so great a development to the powder of 
Russia. * * Let us not, however, suppose that the path traced by history is an 
avenue of roses without thorns. This would be sheer ignorance. When a new — a more 
moral and Christian state of things is about to be established, the obstacles that will 
have to be encountered must not be taken into consideration, except with the hope that 
the torrent of the new life will sweep them away." — M. Pauloff, of Moscow, upon the 
Emancipation of the Serfs, 1858. 

"For thou wert of the mountains: they proclaim 
The everlasting creed of liberty. 
That creed is written on the untrampled snow, 
Thundered by torrents which no power can hold 
Save that of God, when he sends forth his cold. 
And breathed by winds that through the free heaven flow." 

W. C. Bryant — Invocation of fViliiam Tell. 



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ALLEGHANIA. 



THE STRENGTH OF THE UNION AND THE WEAKNESS OF SLAVERY 
IN THE MOUNTAIN DISTRICTS OF THE SOUTH. 



PORT ROYAL AND CUMBERLAND GAP. 

Already an American Army, through the 
entrance of Fort Royal, is encamped upon the 
cotton fields of South Carolina : while an 
event equally memorable will be the occu- 
pation of the Heart of the Southern Alle- 
ghanies, through the Cumberland Gap, by 
the Union army of the Northwest. 

The enemy's frrnt, in the most central 
seat of the rebellion, is already menaced 
at Beaufort, and it is no less im- 
portant, that the Mountain valleys shall be 
held and organized for an attack in the rear 
of the confederate conspirators. Let the 
flag of the republic wave victoriously at 
Knoxviile in East Tennessee, and a Counter- 
Revolution will follow, restoring the Union 
and Constitution in the Alleghany Districts 
of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia 
and Alabama — an area larger than all New 
England. 

This region belongs to Freedom, In the 
language of the St. Paul Pkkss of April 28 : 
" Freedom has always loved the air of moun- 



tains. Slavery, like malaria, desolates the 
low p.lluvials of the globe. The skypiercing 
peaks of the continents are bulwarks against 
oppression : and from mountain valleys has 
often swept most fearful retribution to ty- 
rants." 

In May last the Press applied the desig- 
nations of " Alleghania," " Switzerland of 
the South " &c., to 13 counties of North 
Carolina, 3 of South Carolina, 20 of Geor- 
gia, 1.5 of Alabama, and 26 counties of Ten- 
nessee, and claimed that the region thus de- 
fined was loyal — that slavery had no hold 
upon the people — that it should be free from 
the curse of bondage and that then was the 
golden opportunity (Manassas postponed it 
from July to November) to strike for Lib- 
erty and Union in all the Highlands of the 
South. 

I accept, Mr. Editor, your invitation to 
exhibit proofs (still repeating your lan- 
guage in a May number of the Press) " that 
the Alleghany Districts of Alabama, Georgia 
and the Carolinas can not only be separa- 
ted from all co-operation with the Cotton 



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ALLEGHANIA 



Districts of those States but can bp made i 
a base of operations, in connectioti with a | 
Coast Blockade, for a powerful diversion of \ 
a hostile character." 

II. 

GENKRAL DESCRIPTION. 

Hamboldt and other writers upon clima- 
tology, assure us that an elevation of 267 
feet above the level of the sea is equivalent, 
in general influence upon vegetation, to a 
degree of latitude Northward at the level of 
the ocean. The fact fuliy conndeied that 
the altitude of the Alleghanies will average 
2,500 feet, we are prepared for the state- 
ment that it is a land of corn, and not of 
cotton. " It does not differ greatly," says 
an intelligent traveler,* *' from the climate of 
Long Island, Southern New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. The usual crops are the 
same, those of most consequence being corn, 
rye, oats and grass. Fruit is a more preca- 
rious crop from a greater liability to severe 
frosts after the swelling of the buds in the 
Bpriog. Snow has fallen several inches in 
depth in April." 

The apex of the Range is reached in the 
western counties of North Carolina, where 
the summits have an altitude greater than 
the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

There is no district in the world more 
beautiful — more fruitlul in soil, medicinal 
springs and minerals — so abounding in the 
physical vigor of the people. 

The Southern spurs of the Alleghanies 
constitute the well known Cherokee country 
— a purchase clamorously demanded by the 
whites and reluctantly yielded by the Indians. 
Bancroft, in the History ol the United 
States, (vol. IV. p, 352) becomes fanciful in 
his description of the " vale of Keokee," 
BOW included in West Carolina. '• This 
lovely region," he says, " was the delight 



•yroderlck Law Olmstead in his 
jSaok Ooantry." 



' Journejr in the 



of the Cherokees : the side of the adjacent 
hills bore their habitations, and on the rich 
level ground beneath stood their fields of 
maize, all clambered over by the prolific 
bean. 'I' he mountain sides blushed with 
flowers in their season, and resounded with 
the melody of birds. The river now flowed 
in gentle meanders, now with arrowy swift- 
ness, between banks where the strawberry 
mixed its crimson with the rich verdure, or 
beat against the bills that rose boldly in 
cones upon the border of the intervale, and 
were the abutments of loftier mountains." 

Hereafter we shall connect with the 
political statistics of the separate districts, 
some enumeration of the most striking 
features of natural scenery, without any 
expectation, of course, of imitating the 
florid historian. 

The order of remark will be — 1. Western 
Virginia ; 2. Eastern Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee; 3. West Carolina (North and South); 
4. Northwest Georgia ; 5. Northeast Ala- 
bama. 

III. 

WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

The newspapers inform us that the ordi- 
nance proposed by a Wheeling Convention 
(or dividing the old Commonwealth of Vir- 
giraia, and erecting a new State of the coun- 
ties west of the Alleghany mountains, has 
been adopted by the voters by a majority of 
nearly, if not quite, one hundred to one, and 
a new Convention, the members of which 
have just been chosen will assemble at 
Wheeling on the 26th of November to rat- 
ify the action of the people. The new State 
will be called Kanawha, and will contain a 
population of two hundred and eighty-one 
thousand, including eight thousand slaves. 

Elsewhere, than among the people direct- 
ly interested, a diOerent policy has been adx 
vocated. It has been urged that the trea- 
son of Letcher and the Richmond cabal is 
an abdication of legitimate authority — that 
under Article VI clause 3 of the Ccnstitu- 



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THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 






tion * neither Congress or the President can 
recognize State oiBcers as having any legal 
existence, who refuse to take an oath to sup- 
port the Constitution of the United States, 
or who violate its terms : and that if the 
people of Western Virginia, by appropriate 
demonstrations, step foiward and qualify 
under the Constitution ot the United States, 
there exists a legal organization of the State 
of Virginia, and the Federal Government 
must respond to a requisition to protect the 
State " against domestic violence" — against 
the insurrection of the PCastern district. 

The Senate of the United States, by the 
admission of Carlisle and Willey as Vir- 
ginia Senators, have already assumed the 
foregoing situation to exist ; and it is to be 
hoped that the Wheeling Convention will 
yet express a preference for an authority to 
be extended to the Atlantic seaboard by the 
concurrent agencies of ballots and bullets. 
It is probable, however, that their favorite 
measure of a new State of " Kanawha" will 
be presented to Congress, and, pending the 
question of admission, further discussion of 
its merits will occur, and may be materially 
influenced by the events of the southern and 
Alleghany campaigns. 

We repeat a table of the counties inclu- 
ded in the proposed State of Kanawha, ad- 
ding, on newspaper authority, a column of 
the present population (1860), and two col- 
umns compiled Irom the census returns of 
1850, which exhibit the proportions ten 
years ago of Free and Slave Population. 
In all probability the number of slaves is 
less now, but until the publication of the 
census of 1860 it cannot be stated with more 



* It reads as follows : 

"The Senators and Representatives before 
menlioned, [of the United States] awfiJ themem- 
itn of the several State Legislatures, and all ex- 
ecutive and judicial otficers, both of the Uni- 
ted States, and of the several States shall be 
bound bv an oatti or aflirmation TO SUPPORT 
THIS CONSTITUTION; but no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
office or public trust under the United States." 



accuracy. We shall have frequent occasion 
to produce this ratio of Freemen and Slaves, 
and the present explanation should be borne 
in mind. It is vital to the argument pro- 
posed, that the numerical weakness of slave- 
ry shall be exhibited and the Census of 1850 
is sufBeient authority for the purpose. We 
proceed with the Table, obtained as above 
of the Counties and Population of " Ka- 
nawha," 



-1850- 



Slovf, 



23 
. 356 
. 78 

'. 201 

■ 87 
. 176 
. 94 
. 168 
. 58 
.2510 

'. 82 
. 72 
. 16 
, 164 



Counties. Popula'ion. Fr^e 

Loffao, 4,938 8,533 87 

Wyoming 2,865 1.583 61 

Raleigh 3,307 1,729 

Favetie 5.9V)7 3,780 

Nicholas 4,6'26 3,889 

. Webster* 1,555 

Randolph 4,990 5,003 

Tucker* 1,428 

Freston 13,312 11,562 

Monongalia 13,048 12,092 

Marion, 12,721 10,439 

Taylor, 7,4fi3 5,130 

.Tackson 8,3(i6 6,480 

Roanoke 8,048 5,812 

Calhoun 2,502 

Wirt 3.751 3,319 

Gilmer 3,759 3,403 

Ritchie 6,847 3,886 

Ohio 22,422 17,612 

Brooke, 5,494 4,923 31 

Barbour, 8,959 8,670 113 

Upshur,* 7292 

Harrison 13,790 11,213 488 

Lewis... 7,999 9,620 368 

Braxton, 4,992 4,123 89 

(May,* 1,787 

Kanawha, 14,575 12,001 3140 

Boone 4,840 3,054 183 

Wavne, 6,747 4,564 189 

Cabell, 8,020 5,902 889 

Putnam 6,301 4,693 632 

Mason. 9,185 6,841 647 

Wood, Il,0i6 9,008 S73 

Pleasants, 2,945 

Tyler 6,517 5,436 38 

Doddridge, 5,203.... . 2,718 31 

Wetzel 9,703 4,261 17 

Marshall 13,001 10,050 49 

Hancock 4,455 4,040 S 

Total pop 284,796..... 210,554 10820 

* The six counri«s uiarted with aa aiteri»k were 
created between 18aO and 1860. 

The area of these 39 counties is about 
one fourth of the surface of Virginia, or 
15,335 square miles. This is 4,211 square 
miles larger than the State of Maryland. 

There is a District of equal extent, 
which is often called Middle Virginia or 



4 



ALLEGHANIA : 



the Valley of the Shenandoah. It extends 
east of the main Alleghany Range to the 
Blue Ridge. On its northern border are 
Romney, Martinsburgatid Harper's Ferry ; 
while in the southern counties are the fa- 
mous Natural Bridge and the Sweet, 
White, Red and Blue Sulphur Springs. 
The whole is an Alleghany District, but 
less free from the inlection of slavery than 
the counties above enumerated, whose 
wates flow into the Ohio. Still Central 
Virginia is broadly distinguishable, in this 
respect, from the Atlantic counties, where 
the fanaticism of slavery has always been 
most insane. I have little doubt, with the 
first decisive success of the Union army 
upon the Potomac or Chesapeake, thit the 
Valley of the Shenandoah will be ranged 
side by side with the adjacent community 
of Kanawba. The ground of this confi- 
dence exists in the .preponderance of 
Freemen over slaves, as apparent from the 
following census returns of 1850 : 

COUNTIES AND POPULATION OF SHENANDOAH. 
Frff.. Slav?,. 

Hardy 7,927 1,260 

Hiimpshire, 12,379 1,432 

Morgan 3,431 123 

Jefferson, 10,476 4,341 

Berkeley, 9,566 1,956 

Clarke, 8,614 3,614 

Frederick, 12,769 2,294 

Shenandoah, 12,565 911 

Warren, 4,493 1,748 

I'aue 6,332 957 

Eockingham, 17,496 2.331 

Pendleton 5,443 322 

Augusta, 18,983 5,053 

Highland, 3.837 364 

Pccahontas, 3,303 267 

Greenbrier, 8,5l9 1,317 

Bath 2,463 947 

Alleghany, 2,763 694 

Rockbridge 11,484 4,197 

Botetourt 10,746 3,736 

Roanoke, 5.812 2,510 

Montgomery 6,822 1,471 

Craig, (uew county,) 

Giles, 5,853 657 

Monroe 9,062 1,061 

Mercer, 4,018 177 



Total 200.262 44.742 

But there yet remains for our considera- 
tion a remote region of Virginia,— its south- 



western angle — reaching into the Curaber- 
land range of mountains between Tennes- 
see and Kentucky, and which far more dis- 
tinctly than in the case of the Shenandoah 
counties, we are disposed to a:roup with Ka- 
nawka. Piketon. in East Kentucky — the 
scene of Nelson's late victory — immediately 
adjoins this District. How stand its Slave- 
ry statistics, for, as we proceed with this in- 
vestigation, these will be found the invariable 
touchstone of loyalty to the Union. When 
the baneful shadow grows light — when the 
ratio of bond and free is reduced to less than 
a fourth — sympathy and co-operation with 
rebellion disappear. 

SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA — CODNTIES AND 
POPULATION IN 1850. 

Fre.'. Slave, 

Carroll, 5,726 154 

Floyd 6,001 443 

McDowell, (new county) 
Buchanan, do 

Tazewell 4,310 95 

Wythe, 9,618 2185 

Smyth 6,898 1064 

Grayson H,142 499 

Washington 12,369 2131 

Russell 10,866 982 

Scott 9,322 473 

Wise, (new county) 

Lee, 9,440 787 

Total, 76,892 8,693 

Here the proportion of freemen is nearly 
10 to 1, a circumstance decisive of the atti- 
tude ot the people in the great contest now 
impending. Why should the Wheeling 
leaders exclude these Southwestern counties? 
Rather let them reconsider their purpose of 
isolation, and try conclusions with the Rich- 
mond traitors on the broad arena of the 
State. The foregoing review exhibits the 
feeble tenure of slavery, and consequently of 
the rebellion, upon the larger portion of 
Virginia, including its coal, salt, and valua- 
ble minerals; and it will need but a slight 
degree of patience to restore the Old Do- 
minion, without dismemberment, to its con- 
stitutional attitude within the Federal Union. 
Let the whole question be considered, from 
no partial or local view, and with due defer- 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 






ence to the policy of the National Admin- 
istration for the suppression of the insurrec- 
tion. We will not doubt that prudenc and 
patriotic ounsels will prevail at Wheeling 
CD *Iie 26th ot November. 

— The above was in manuscript when the 
telegrams of the Press (November 20th) 
euggtst a new soIutioL — that " Congress will 
probably be called on to change the territo- 
rial boundaries of Delaware so as to give 
this little State all the land east of Chesa- 
peake Bay, and to change the boundaries of 
Maryland so as to give her all the Eastern 
counties of Virginia, and to leave to the State 
of Virginia, as organized by the Convention 
at Wheeling, the territory between the Blue 
Ridge and the Uhio.'" 

This proposition, it will be seen, avoids 
the constitutional difficulty of a new State 
of Kanawha. The theory is retained — an 
impregnable theory — that the State of Vir- 
ginia is represented by tbe loyal body at 
Wheeling, not by Richmond traitors; and 
the above programme is in strict accordance 
with Article IV, Sec. 3 of the Constitution, 
of the United States, which is as follows : 

" New States mav be admitted by the 
Congress into this Union; but no new State 
shall bo formed or erected within the juris- 
diction ot any other State, nor any State be 
formed by the junction of two or more States 
or parts of States without the consent of the 
Legislatures of the States concerned as well 
as of the Congress. " 

It is unlikely that the Legislatures of Vir- 
ginia, (convened at Wheeling,) Delaware or 
Maryland, would withhold assent to the fore- 
going revision of the map. 

We read occasionally of a new map of 
Europe, in the interest of dynasties. May 
we not expect on behalf of the Union men 
of the South a revision of Southern limits 
and boundaries? As we proceed through 
Alleghania, new combinations of political 
and physical geogaphy will be forced upon 
our attention. 



IV. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES OF WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

The pcenery of the AUeghanies, where 
traversed by mil, is familiar- -the admira- 
tion of every traveller on the trains of the 
Erie, the Pennsylvania Central, the Balti- 
more and Ohio, and not without commemo- 
ration by artists. 

The valley of the Grand Kanawha is 
frequently named for its immeasuable wealth 
of salt and coal and iron. The grandeur 
of its mountain scenery has never been ap- 
preciated as it deserves. 

And everywhere among the hills of Wes- 
tern Virginia are Fountains of Health — 
mineral springs — summoning the invalid by 
a stronger motive tcian the Love of the 
Beautiful. Sufifer an enumeration, in the 
least possible compass, of these and other 
natural wonders of Southwest Virginia. 

The White Sulphur Spring is on How- 
ard's Creek, in Greenbrier county, directly 
on the edge of the (^reat Western Valley, 
ar.d near the base of the Alleghany moun- 
tains. It is the heart of the celebrated 
group of Western Virginia Springs, with 
the Hot Sprmg 38 miles distant on the 
north ; the Sweet Spring 17 miles to the 
eastward ; the Salt and Red Springs, 24 
and 41 miles respectively, on the South ; 
and the Blue Spring 22 miles away on the 
West. Appleton's Hand-Book of Ameri- 
can Travel presents some interesting partic- 
ulars of each locality. The White Sulphur 
bubbling in the lowest part of a charming 
valley, is at an elevation of 2000 feet above 
tide water, temperature 62° Farenheit, ar.d 
yielding at all season 30 gallons per minute. 
The Red Sulphur, in Monroe county, is "in 
a verdant glen, surrounded on all sides by 
lofty mountains. The south end of this en- 
chanting vale," our authority proceeds, 
"which is the widest portion of it, is about 
two hundred feet in width. Its course is 
nearly north for about one hundred and fifty 



9 



ALLEGHANIA : 



yards, when it begins gradaally to contract, 
and changes its direction to the northwest 
and west until it terminates in a narrow 
point. This beautifully secluded Tempe is 
the chosen site of the village." The Sweet 
Springs, also in Monroe county, were dis- 
covered as early as 1764, and the waters 
were analyzed by Bishop Madison, Presi 
dent ot William and Mary College in 1774. 
They also lie in a lovely valley, five miles in 
length, and between a mile and half a mile 
broud. Fully a dozen more Spas, noted 
for their medicinal force, are scattered over 
Western Virginia, always accompanied 
with a bracing atmosphere and beautiful 
scenery. 

The Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge 
county became familiar in our childhood — 
a "household word" like Niagara. 

Caverns abound. Weir's Cave in Augusta 
county is scarcely inferior in its mysterious 
grandeur to the Kentucky Mammoth. 
Look up the details of description in Apple- 
ton or Lippencott's Gazeteer. Ditto of 
"Madison's Cave," "The Blooming Cave," 
'The Hawk's Nest," "The Ice Mountain," 
&c., &c. 

We proceed with our statistics. To the 
Landscape of Virginia West — Au revoir. 



THE SITUATION IN KENTUCKY. 

The Second Minnesota Regiment is on 
duty for the protection of Louisville and an 
advance on Nashville ; and we hope to hear 
that the First Minnesota will soon be under. 
orders to join the division of Gen Buell — 
perhaps to follow the retreating rebel army 
under ZoUicoflfer through Cumberland Gap 
to the relief of East Tennessee. Kentucky 
is also the destination of the Third Minne- 
sota Regiment. May we not therefore anti- 
cipate that three thousand Mionesotians will 
find active service in the series of operations 
Joi' the occupation of the Great Southwest- 
Railway from Richmond to Memphis ? 



Meanwhile, Eastern Kentucky — the coun- 
ties along the western base ot the Cumber- 
land Mountains — has nobly responded to 
the cause of the Union. The late success 
of Nelson at Piketon — although greatly 
exaggerated by the first statement—has ex- 
pelled the enemy and secures the left wing 
of Buell in Rockcastle and Laurel counties. 
By our latest accounts. Nelson's command 
will speedily join the left wing of Buell, with 
its headquarters near Danville — so implicit 
is the confidence in the voluntary Union 
organizatis-ns of the Eastern or Mountain 
counties. They constitute the only exten- 
sive district of the State, which can hence- 
forth dispense with the presence and aid of 
the Northwestern troops. In the battle at 
Piketon, the Kentucky volunteers under 
Colonels Marshall, Metcalfe, Apperson and 
Grigsby, were uiost exposed. These gallant 
mountaineers were hastily lecruited during 
Gen. Nelson's march from Cynihlara,throogh 
Ovvingsville, Olympian Springs, West Lib- 
erty and Prestoriburgh, to Piketon. They 
represent a population which, from the first 
outbreak, have been on fire with loyal zeal — 
repudiating all sympathy with this War of 
Slavery against the Uoion. 

Our favorite test— it might properly be 
termed the Slaveometer — would indicate 
such a state of things. For example, from 
the census ef 1850, we have the following 
division of the population in two tiers of 
counties, constituiing the Eastern Highlands 
of Kentucky : 

Coun'ies. Free. Slave. 

Letcher, 2,440 62 

Floyd 5,503 149 

Harlan .4,108 123 

Whitley, 7,222 201 

Knox, 6,238 612 

Ferry, 2,072 117 

Clay, 4,734 615 

Breathitt 3,603 170 

Morgan, 7.395 187 

Joimson 3,843 30 

Lawrence 6,142 137 

Carter, 5,960 207 

— In contrast to this exhibit of Eastern 
Kentucky — a portion of the great central 



THE HIOHLANDS OF THE SOUTH'. 



1 



district of mountain slopes and valleys, which 
it is the object of this publication to illus- 
trate — turn for a moment to the region of 
Southern Kentucky which is the rebel cen- 
tre. Bowling Green is Buckner's Elead- 
quarters, and at Russelville, in an adjoining 
county of Logan, almost simultaneously 
with the exploit of Nelson, Marshall and 
Metcalfe, on the sources of the Big Sandy, 
a conclave of Kentucky traitors were enact- 
ing the farce of a paper transfer of their 
native State to the Southern League of 
Treason, fs it by accident only that the 
scene of their conspiracy is the largest 
slaveholding district of Kentucky? By no 
means. Where the cause ot the Rebellion 
most palpably exists, there will the fruits 
of treason be manifested. In Logan coun- 
ty, of which Russelville is the seat, the pro-* 
portion of free and slave in 1850, was 
10,750 to 5,467 -in Todd, next south, 7,361 
to 4 810. 

Space will not allow any detail of ope- 
rations on the line from Louisville to Nash- 
ville.* Our concern is with Buell's left wing 
under Gen. Thomas on the route from 
Cincinnati to Cumberland Gap. Shall 
it advance ? We hear with exultation that 
Secretary Chase in a recent interview with 
Eastern capitalists, disclaimed on behalf of 
the Government and General M'Clellan any 
purpose to send the army into winter quar- 
ters, and he remarked with mu(,h signifi- 
cance, that "a glance at the map will perhaps 



* Tho reader, having access to a map of 
Kentucky, may be iuteruited to trace the local- 
ities Dunied in the t'ollowint; paragraph from 
the Louisville correspondeuce of the Oincinnati 
(Jommerdul: 

" Exaniioe the Hue of the Union army in ITen'ucky, 
and nut'Ci the xn»in body iseDCampeo at Bacon Ciefii, 
waiting tbe results of movements in the left wing, 
ann anxious to move fo-waid The right wirg has 
its 'Xtreiae at Morgantown, in Butler county and is 
iu furoe at Wooff berry. Immediately on l he left o Mc- 
Cook, is General Ward's brigade, theadvaLceot which 
i3 at liricrfburp. The left veiDff, under General Thorn 
as, havioi^ the incuiubiance, Zollicoffer, has assumed 
its position at i»aiiville. wi h its extreme as fai South 
as Monticeilo. Ihos a complete line oi outposts is eg 
tablitihcd, each post occupieii bj an army of itself." 



astonish those who have never reflected, Tiow 
short is the distance from East Tennessee to 
Port Royal Harbor, and may suggest a 
possibility of cutting a great rebellion irito 
two small pieces."* 

Why shall not this be the key to the 
Winter campaign of the West ? "Protect 
Louisville !" of course, as we have protected 
Washington ; but snfifer no premature move- 
ment in other directions to divert us from 
our great duty to the loyal population of 
East Tennessee. "To Cumberland Gap !" la 
a cry which would arouse the Northwest as 
with the blast of a trumpet. 

In advance of the Army of the TJnion, 
let us take our stand in this grea' 
highway — the South Pass of the Alu 
Range — and thence survey the land a 
thousands whose most earnest aspirtitiop is 
for the victorious advent of the Stars and 
Stripes upon the aummits of the Cumber- 
land.f 

VI. 

EAST TENNESSEE. 

"Where is Cumberland Gap ?' The most 
explicit answer I have found to the inquiry 
now so often repeated, is a paragraph from 
the Louisville Democrat: 

"Cumberland Gap is situated about ten miles 
from Cumberland Ford, in Tennessee, and has 
been celebrated for a century as a great de- 
pression in the mountain ridge which traversea 
the continent from New Hampshire to North 
Alabama. Tl)v«ugh this gap, very similar in 
appearance and characteristics to the South 
Puss of the Rocky Mountains, formerly the 
emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina 
passed, on their way to the virgin wilds of the 



* To the same effect is the language of the 
Richmond J)isvatch, of Nov. 14. It says, "If 
East Tennessee is lost, the empire of the South 
is cut in twain, and we become a fragmentary 
organization, fighting in scattered and segre- 
gated localities for a cawse which can no longer 
boast the important attribute of geographical 
unity." 

+ As we leave Kentucky, the tramp of the 
Union legi(>ns is greeted by a song of Mother 
Country, from William D, Gallagher, the 
pioneer poet of the West. It is transferred 
to the Appendix, No. 1. 



8 



ALLEGHANIA 



West. For half a century thousands upon 
thousands poured through this na\ural gateway 
into the Mississippi Valley from the Atlantic 
slopes. Bonne, Kenton, and other pioneer 
confrevs, tirst entered the land of 'cane and 
turkey' over this pre-Adamite turnpike. It 
really forms to this hour the best, and, in fact, 
the only, practicable road for the transporta- 
tion of troops and heavy munitions of war 
from Kentucky mto East Tennessee." 

It has been suggested that there are other 
practicable passes of the Cumberland 
Mountains — "Pound Gap," leading from 
the vicinity of Pilieton, in Eastern Ken- 
tacky, into the southwestern triangle of 
Virginia, and "Wheeler's Gap," some 
thirty-five miles westward of the Cumber- 
land Gap, It is doubtful whether they 
are available for army transportation. 

The Cumberland Hills are the most wes- 
terly of the Appalachian chain, constitut- 
ing the western limit of East Tennessee, 
while the Allegbanies proper, on some maps 
of Tennessee called the Kittatinny Moun- 
tains, are the boundary of North Carolina. 
An equal area of the latter State intervenes 
before reaching the eastern chain of the 
AUeghanies, which is an extension of the 
Blue Ridge of Virginia, and will be subse- 
quently described. Our immediate narra- 
tive relates to the counties and population 
of Tennessee, between the Cumberland and 
the central Alleghany chains. 

The following table from the census of 
1850, presents the Slave and Cotton statistics 
of this District, in their relation to the Free 
Population : 

Counties. Free, Slave. Cotton AM lb. bales 

Johnson, 3,485.. 2m6 

Carter 5,911.. 353 

Washington,. .12, 671.. 930 

Sullivan 10,603. .1,004. ... 153 

Hancock, 5,447.. 20-2.... 2 

Hawkins 11,567. .1,690. . . . 

Greene, 16,526. .1,093 

Cocke........ 7-501.. 719.... 3 

Sevier, 6,450.. 403 

Jefferson, ....11,458. .1.628.... 

Granger, 11,170. .1,035. . . . 1 

Knox, 16. 385. .2,193 

Union, (new countr,.. .... 

Claiborne, 8,610.. 660 

Anderson 6,391., 606 

Campbell,.... 6,651.. 818.... 1 



Count' es. T^en. Slave. CoUon-AOOlb.bala 

Scott 1,868,. 37.... 

Morgan, 3,301.. 101 

Cumberland, (new county) .... 

Roane 10,525. . 1,544. . . . 121 

Blount 11,213. 1,084.... 6 

Monroe 10,623 .. 1,188. .. , 

McMinn 12,286. .1,568. . . . 2,821 

Polk 5,884.. 400.... 29 

Bradley, 11,478.. 744.... 1,600 

Meigs, 4,480.. 395.... 2 

Hamilton,..., 9,216.. 672 

Khea, 3,951.. 436.... 

Bledsoe 5,036.. 827.... 

Sequatche, (new county,) .... 
VanBuren,... 2,481.. 175.... 2 

Grundy, 2,522.. 236.... 24 

Marion, 5,718.. 551. ..24,413 

Franklin, 10,085. .3,623. . . . 637 

Lincoln, 17,802. . 5,621 .. . ,2,576 

The geographical order of the foregoing 
list ot counties is from the extreme north- 
east — Johnson— southwest to Lincoln on the 
Alabama line. I have included a tier of 
counties on the west, which embrace the 
summits and western slopes of the Cumber- 
land Hills, regarding their physical and po- 
litical features as more identified with East 
than Middle Tennessee, Such are Lincoln, 
Franklin, Grundy, Van Buren, Cumberland, 
Morgan and Scott counties. 

I estimate the area of this District as 
about 17,17.5 square miles, an extent of ter- 
ritory exceeding the aggregate of the fol- 
lowing States : 

Massachusetts, 7,800 square miles. 

Connecticut 4,674 " 

Rhode Island, 1 306 

13,780 
The country reverberates with the proofs 
of the loyalty and devotion of East Tennes- 
see. Simultaneously with the achievements 
at Port Royal, and by Nelson's detachment 
in East Kentucky (and also, alas ! with the 
retreat of Thomas from the scene of Zilli- 
coSer's repulse before Cumberland Gap,) 
we hear of another rising tor the cause of 
the Union in the home of Andrew John- 
son. The railroad bridges over the Hiawaa- 
se river, at Charleston, and over Lick Creek* 
both in the county of McMinn, and over 
the Holston River in JeSerson county — 
points below and above Knoxville— are re» 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



9 



ported to be destroyed, cutting off travel 
upon the lines of the East Tennessee and 
Georgia, and Tennessee and Virgiiiia rail 
roads at three vital points ; while from 
Northwest Georgia we hear that the great 
central road of that State is severed by the 
demolition of a bridge fifteen miles east of 
Chattenooga, thus interrupting approach 
from the direction of Georgia and the Car- 
olinas. Allowing one half of these state- 
ments for exaggeration, full enough appears 
to justify our worst apprehensions for the 
Union men of the Tennessee Highlands, if 
the nation fails to concentrate an irresistable 
column fur their efKcient support. 

Recent information at Cincinnati (assert- 
ed by the Commercial newspaper of Nov. 
22 to be received through " channels worthy 
tl e most absolute confidence") confirms " the 
destruction of three important railroad 
bridges in Tennessee and two in Georgia," 
and add,^, that '' there are camps of Union 
men in Tennessee, twelve hundred in one and 
seven hundred in another, each man with 
his rifle and a pound of powder, and a cor- 
responding quantity of balls, and regarding 
his powder as fir more precious than gold." 
On the same authority, we learn that at the 
late Confederate Presidential election no one 
dared to open the pulls in many counties : 
in Roane county, where two thousand votes 
are usually given, less than three hundred 
and fifty were polled ; in Horace xMaynard's 
Congressional District, with its 8 000 Union 
majority on the Ordinance of Secession, all 
exci^pt a iew hundred refused to vote ; while 
in Knox ccunty, of which Knoxville is the 
seat, where the Union men had three thouv 
sand two hundred votes, a Submissionist 
candidate received but eighty votes. The 
Cincinnati journal adds, among other en- 
couraging statements — " There i^ undoubt- 
edly a powerful reaction in North Carolina 
against the Disunionists. It Viould not be 
surprising to hear at any time of a most de- 
termined € niou movement in that quarter. 

2 



The Union men of North Carolina and north 
Alabama are in communication with those of 
East Tennessee."* 

L( t the patient Wi.«t make its final appeal 
to the Government at Washington and the 
politicians and journals of the East, '' For 
the sake of God and Liberty, find or make 
a way to the re^icue of East Tennessee. How 
evident that Military Strategy combines 
with Patriotism, with Humanity, with Jnss 
tice, to point our flag and arms to Cumber- 
and Gap 1 Let us see no retreat — no inac- 
tivity — tiO earthworks — no winter quarters 
on the Left Wing of the Great Army of 
the Centre! Hold Buckner at Bowling 
Green — even postpone for a brief season the 
retribution of Memphis— bat Forward — 
Forward to Cumberland Gap!" 

Otherwise, too soon, the words of him 
who sang of Paradise Lost, may have a 
melancholy interest in tneir application to 
the martyrs of our Alleghany Piedmont : 

"Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, 

whose booes 
Lie scattered on ttie Alpine mountains cold ; 
Even them who kefit thy truth so pure of old 
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and 

stones 
Forget not : in thy book record tbeir groan j." 

VH. 

PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF EAST TENNESSEE. 

With an agreeable and healthy climate, 
exempt alike from the winter severities of 
the North, and the sultry heats of the South, 
a great degree of animal vigor is experienced 
in East Tennessee. Stock-raising is most 



*Totbe same effect with these statements ire 
the admissions in a late number of the Rich- 
mond Dispatch. Describing a skirmish with 
the Union men, encamped in Carter county, it 
says: 

"The Lincolnites were some three hundred 
strong, and constituted the advance of a body 
of eight hundred in Elizabethtown, the moun- 
tain stronghold of the traitors. We may state 
here that these men (as has since been ascer- 
tained frotn prisoneis) expected a reinforcement 
of fine hiiTiiLredmtn from Wa'itaitfia cmnti/, IV. 
C'., a disirjfecttd region adjoining Johnson couti' 
tij, lenjunisee," 



V > 



10 



ALLEGHANIA 



profitable, although there is a great range of 
agriculture, inoluding tobacco, cotti n, corn, 
hemp, buckwheat, rye, oats, barley, in short 
the entire growth of the Temperate Zone. 
This scale of production results f rona the 
concurrent cultivation of the liver alluvials, 
and the slopes and plateaux of the adjacent 
mountains. 

Captain Howard Stansbury, U. S. A., is 
accustomed to remark, that, when once sta- 
tioned at Knoxville, he never ceased to ad- 
mire the stalwart forms ot the people inhab- 
iting the Cumberland Hills. No finer ma- 
tenel for grenadiers can be found on this 
continent. 

An immense wealth will yet be accumu- 
lated Irom the mineral resources of East 
Tennessee. The coal minesof Marion coun- 
ty, near the adjoining angles of Alabama 
and Georgia, constitute the most Southern 
cape of the immense bituminous deposit of 
the Mississippi Valley; while in the county 
of Pulk are copper mines, which are bo sit- 
uated as to be worked iu three States, Ten- 
nessee, Georgia and North Carolina. At 
these mines, a large Cornish population are 
employed by a Company of London and 
Boston capitalists. In Roane county and 
many other localities, a superior quality of 
iron is found. Gold, too, has been detected, 
and silver, lead, zinc, manganese, magnetic- 
iron ore, gypsum of superior quality, a great 
variety of beautiful marbles, slate, nitre, 
burrstones and limestone, are enumerated in 
Appleton.* Salt and mineral springs, the 
latter of very valuable character, abound. 

The upper waters of the Tennessee, and 
all that portion ol the river in the Eastern 
and middle portions of the State, are ex- 
tremely beautiful; varied as the landscape is, 
;.y wild mountaio scenes and fertile pastoral 
lands. In the neighborhood of Chattanoo- 
ga, where the Look-out Mountain lifts its 
bold crest, the scenery is especially attract- 

* Handbook of Arnerican Travel, p. 814. 



ive. It would be difficult to find a more 
charming picture than that from th« sum- 
rait of the Look-out Mountain, over the 
smiling valley of the Tennessee, and the ca- 
pricious windings of the river. 

While Knoxville is the seat of political 
combinations in East Tennessee, Chattanoo- 
ga, near the Georgia line, is the railway and 
commercial centre, being the terminus of the 
Nashville and Chattanooga route from 
Nashville, and situated also upon the Geor- 
gia routes reaching to Knoxville, and thence 
through Virginia, and upon the great line 
from Charleston, S. C, to the Mississippi at 
Memphis. The Tennessee River is naviga- 
ble two-thirds of the year, and all time^ for 
small boats, from the Ohio to Chattanooga. 

The Cumberland mountains are lull of 
subterranean scenerv — numerous and re- 
markable caverns. Upon the Enchanted 
Rock, in one of these localities, are seen some 
singular impressions of the feet of men and 
animals : while, every where, the tumuli of 
a primeval and vanished race meet the trav- 
eler. 

VIIL 

THE ALLEGHANY SECTION OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

The Carolina Piedmont of the Allegha- 
nies is mostly within the North State. The 
following counties, from their relation to 
East Tennessee, the diminished proportion 
of slaves, and the physical conditions of soil 
and climate, would unquestionably organize 
a Counter Revolution for the restoration of 
the Union, upon the passage of the Cumber- 
land Gap by an American army : 



Counties. 



Free. 



Slave. Cotton, 

4S0 Ib.traleg, 

Wilkes 10,733 ... .1,142 I 

Ashe S.O'JG 595 

Watanija 3,242 129 

Caldwell o,005 l,-?(i3 42 

Alexander... 4,653 513 

Rutherford.. 10, 425 2,905 183 

Pdlk (new couiitv,) 

McDowell... 4,771.... 1,262 1 

Burke 5.477.. . .2,132 8 

Yancey 7,809 316 

Ma.dison (uew county,) 



mmmr" 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



11 



Counhea. Frea SJave. Cotton, 

400 Ib.balea 

Buncombe. ..11,601 1,717 

Henderson .. 5,S!'2 024 

Huvwood.... 6,641 418 . 

Miicon 5,734 519 

Cherokee.... 6,493.... 337 

Jaclisou (uew cuunty,) 

The seventeen counties of North Carolina, 

above enumerated, contain 11,700 square 

miles, — a larger area than either of the tol- 

ovviug States : 

New Hampshire 9,280 square miles. 

Verfnonl 10,212 " " 

NewJerse}' 8,320 ' " 

'" The mountain district of North Caro- 
lina," to repeat the laoguage of a hand-book 
of summer travel, " when it corner to bo 
better known, will place the State in public 
estimation among the most strikingly pic- 
turesque portions of the Union. Two great 
ridges of the Alieghanies traverse this grand 
region, some of their peaks rising lo the 
noblest heights, and one of them reaching a 
greater altitude tlian any summit east of the 
Eocky Mountains. Wild brooks innumer- 
able and of the richest beauty, waterfalls op 
wonderful delight and valleys lovely enough 
for loveliest dreams, are seen in thig yet al- 
most unknown land." Unless this general 
description is greatly exaggerated, it war- 
rants some more specific detail. Let ua re- 
view our geographical authorities for this 
purpose. 

Here is the crest of the Alieghanies — an 
elevation no where reached east of the 
Rocky Mountains. It is only within a few 
years that this distinction has been transfer-* 
red from New Hampshire to North Caro- 
lina. By barometrical observations, the 
highest peaks of the entire chain have been 
found near the bead-waters of the Oconaluf- 
tee, and Little Pigeon rivers on the line 
between the States of North Carolina 
and Tennessee. There are twelve peaks 
higher than Mount Washington, of the 
White Mountains, long considered the 
highest point ea^t of the Mississippi, — 
iz : Mount Le Conte, 6,670 ; Mount Guyot, 



6,734 ; Mount Buckley 6.755 ; Olingman's 
Peak, 6,941. These are late measurements, 
of Professor J. Le Conte of Columbia, 
South Carolina, and Mr. Buckley a New 
York botanist. Previ /usly, Black Moun- 
tain, twenty miles northwest of Ashville, 
and rising to the height of 6,476 feet, bore 
the crown Excelsior. 

As late as 1859, however, an unapproach- 
able rival was discovered — "Old Baisam,"in 
the veraar ular of the adjacent valleys. Bal- 
sam Mountain, in the same locality as those 
last named, is stated on the authority of a 
barometrical measurement of Professor W. 
D. Jsines of Tennessee, to be ten thousand 
and three hundred feet above the sea. The 
mountain is one of a very lofty range, and 
the gap between it and the next peak is 
crossed by a turHpike road. The distance 
to the top from this road, by a winding and 
easy ascent, is about fo'ir miles, and its ele- 
vation above the road, four thousand feet, 
A very rank growth of weeds and grass cov- 
ers the ground on nearly all parts of the 
mountain to the top, which is used as a 
range for cattle, horses and hogs, and would 
be very profitably employed in this way, but 
for the havoc committed on younj cattle, and 
especially on swine and sheep, by bears, 
wolves and panthers. 

These particulars are obtained from "A 
Journpy in the Back Country," by Frederitk 
Law Olmstead. That interesting writer thus 
proceeds with his narrative of an excursion 
to the summit of Balsam Mountain: ''The 
mountain, to within less than a mile from 
the top, is entirely shaded by a forest of 
large trees, the chestnut predominating. The 
only change foucd as you ascend, is iu their 
height; the trunks continually becoming 
shorter and sturdier. At perhaps baU' a mile 
(rom the summit, the trees appear gradually 
more scattered; at length there is a nearly 
bald zone, covered however, with grass and 
weeds waist high. Above this, at a quarter 
ot a mile from the top, begins a forest of 



12 



ALLEGHANIA 



balsam Gra (popularly called "balsams.") 
Id the interval, between the two forests, the 
ascent was steep and fatiguing — the rarity 
of the atmosphere, perhaps, producing a 
rush of blood to the head. This sensation 
was relieved on entering the balsam forest. 
The balsams are thirty or forty feet high, 
and have been cut awaj, at the compara 
lively levtl surface of several yards in extent, 
which is the highest point of elevation. 
* * * * rp[^g peculiarity of this 
mountain top, distinguishing it from others 
of equal height, is its roodirate temperature, 
and consequeut abundant vegetation. The 
air was soff. and agreeable, (a July day). 
The ground, a dark, rich soil, with rocks 
protruding and shaly stones, bore luxuriant 
coarse herbage. Beside the thick growth of 
firs, I noticed black birch, chestnut, moun- 
tain-ash, wild currant, whortleberry, honey- 
suckle, and a variety of cherry, all growing 
on the highest point. The air was damp, evi- 
dently its usual condition. All the dead 
and broken down trees and the rocks were 
covered thickly with mosses and lichens, 
which were charged with water like a soak- 
ed sponge. * * The general character of 
the scenery is less grand than that of the 
White Mountains, but it has impressive 
sublimity and repose. All the mountains 
are covered with trees, which, with the lux- 
ariant herbage beneath them, secures soft- 
ness of outline. Brooks of clear water are 
frequent. The mountain sides are often very 
steep, but actual precipices or even large 
ledges or masses of rock are not seen. These 
mountains would therefore be more pleasant 
to ramble over than the White Mountains, 
and will probably, when Railroads are com- 
pleted in their neighborhood, be much re- 
sorted to for pleasure. At present there is 
no public conveyance to any point within 
thirty -five miles of the base of Balsam 
Mountain." 

Ex uno disce omncs. This description 
will convey a sufficient impression of the 



surface and flora of the region in qnestion 
— dispensing with further word -painting 
Appleion's Hand Book may h^ consu'i.ed 
for the charms and wonders of the " Pilot 
Mountain" in Burke county— of passes 
and closes among the giant hills, and of 
such bold clifiFi or peaks as "The 
Hawks Bill," «' The Table Rock " and 
'' Ginger Cake Rock.'' 

The " Frenth Broad River" will justify 
special mention. Its wild mountain course 
from Ashville to the Tennessee line, is a 
constant succession of admirable scenes. 
" It is a rapid streim," quoting from Ap- 
pleton, " and in all its cojrse lies deep down 
in mountain gorges — now ioaming over its 
rocky pathway, and now sleeping, sullen 
and dark, at the base of huge precipitous 
cliffs. A fine highway follows the banks 
and often trespasses upon its waters, as it 
is crowded by the jealous overhanging 
cliffs. Near the Tennessee boundury and 
close by the Warm prings, this road lies 
in the shadow of the bold mountain pre- 
cipices known as the Painted Rocks and 
the Chimneys. The Painted Rocks have 
a perpendicular elevation of between 200 
and 300 feet. Their name comes from 
the Indian pictures yet to be seen upon 
them. The Chimneys are lofty cliffs, 
broken at their summits into detached 
piles of rocks, bearing much the likeness 
of colossal chimneys." 

IX. 

COWPENS AND king's MOUNTAIN. 

" And what of South Carolina " ? I may 
be asked. Turn to a common school atlas, 
\ and there, close upon the Northwest border 
! ©f South Carolina, among the Southern 
I spurs ot the Blue Ridgc^, we lead the names, 
. «' Cowpens, ' " King's Mountain," and their 
i inspiration turns the scale against the s'avery 
' statistics of the surrounding counties. Those 
I revolutionary battle-fields shall be the sub- 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



'^5 
13 



stitute for the " ten righteous men " whom 
Lot vainly sought in t'ne doomed citJea of 
the plain. Why may not a Provisional 
Legislature of Carolina (merging the rebel- 
lious " South " in the more loyal '• North " 
State) yet assemble on " King's Moudx 
tain " under the asgis of the old Flag of Sum- 
ter and Marioti ? 

The battle-field of the Cowpens (Janua- 
ry 17. 1781) is on the hill-range in Spar- 
tanburg county, South Carolina, called the 
Thickety Mountain. In the olden time the 
cattle were puffered to graze upon the scene 
of the conte?t — hence the name. It was a 
brave fight, that of the Cowpens, resulting 
in the defeat and retreat of the British under 
Tarleton, with a loss of 10 officers and 90 
privates killed, and 23 otHcers and 500 pi'i« 
vates taken prisonera. The American loss 
was about 70, of whom oiJy 12 were killed. 

A day's journey eastward is King's 
Mountauibattlt-fieid. in York county, only 
a mile and a half south ot the North Caro 
lina line. The King's Mountain range ex- 
tends aboat sixteen miles southward, sending 
out lateral spurs in various directions. The 
scene of the memorable battle iought in this 
strange jiaee is just below the summit of 
the hill. A simple monument to the mem- 
ory of Ferguson and others marks the spot 
and on the right there is a large tulip tree, 
upon which it is said ten tories were hanged. 
The patriot forces here engaged were hastily 
recruited from the Alleghany districts ot 
Virginia and North Carolina — their match 
upon the tory Ferguson's position, having 
followed and forded the Catawba river of 
North Carolina. * 

I give precedence to these historical asso- 
ciations of the Hill-Region of Sojth Caro - 
lina. Otherwise, many paragraphs might 

* The contemporary account of the Battle of 
King's Mountain is so suggestive in respect to 
the details of an Alleghany campaign m the 
rear of tlie Cotton Disiricts of tbe rebel States, 
that it is transferred to the Appendix, (No. 2,) 
for reference. 



be pleasantly occupied with tbe natural 
scenery. Pickens county boants its " Table 
Rock," (Niagara by no means hadamonr.p- 
oly in this designation) 4,300 feet above the 
sea, with a long extent en one side of per. 
pendicular cliSs 1,000 feet in height, and di- 
versified by the Fall of Slicking. In Pick- 
ens also are the beautiful vales of Keokee 
and Jocassee, beloved of tbe vanished Cher- 
okee and preserving the Indian names of 
their streams. Crowder's Knob, the highest 
peak of King's Mountain, is about 3.000 
feet above the sea : while the Mountain 
<Jap near the Cherokee Ford, the Great 
Falls of the Catawba, Rocky Mount, the 
scene of another partisan struggle, and the 
Hanging Rock, where Sumter fought a des- 
perate guerilla, are other interesting scenes 
and localities of Alleghanian Carolina. 

An area of South Carolina as large as 
Connecticut, 4.674 square miles, is represen- 
ted in the following statcmeut : 



Counties. 



Free. 



Slave. Cot'on, 

400 lb. biles. 

Spartanburg. .18,311 8.039 6,671 

Greenville. . . . 13,370 6,691 2.452 

Anderson 13.867 7 5l4 6.670 

Pickens 13,105 3.679 i,357 

I admit that this exhibit is less favorable 
to the ascendancy of Union sentiment than 
the minimums of slave population and cot- 
ton production which have hitherto followed 
our excursions through AUeghania, but the 
large proportion of Iree inhabitants, com- 
pared with the census returns near the At- 
lantic coast, is still a hopeful indication. 
Of itself, however, it is not claimed to be 
decisive of future political results. 

But let the Union men of North Carolina 
be OBce reached from tbe West, and the up- 
rising sure to toKuw in all the valleys of 
the Blue Ridge— fuilv one-third of the State 
— will carry the paliiotic contagion to the 
old homes of the Cherokee in tbe Uplands 
of South Carolina. "Cowpens" and " King's 
Mountain" (the Mont Real of the Catawba 
valley,) must be redeemed. 



14 



ALLEGHANIA 



There is ample ground for the belief that 
the people o( North Carolina are loy 1 at 
heart. lo the Union camps of Bast Ten- 
nessee, there are numerous volunteers from 
Watauga and other adjacent counties over 
the border— at the only popular election 
suffered to be held upon the question of 
Union and Secession, the Union noajority 
was as two to one ; and even after the storm 
of Sumter, the vote in the Convention of 
North Carolina on a proposition to submit 
the Ordinance of Secession to a vote of the 
people, received 34 yeas to 73 nays. I have 
confidence that those thirty-four names, 
representing one-third of the State, were 
given by delegates from the Western coun- 
ties — the Alleghany counties — from the 
base and sides of the Blue Ridge — from a 
land of Corn and Cattle, not of Cotton. 
Again, when the news of the capture of 
Ilatteras was announced in the Legislature 
of North Carolina, it is evident from the 
language of the Raleigh newspapers, that 
an irrepressible explosion of Uuion feeling 
— even to an outburst of cheers according 
to one statement — occurred. Nor is such a 
state of feeling surprising, when we remem- 
ber that not even iti Kentucky is the mem- 
ory of Henry Clay more a fireside treasure 
of the people. In this respect, the quiet, 
unobtrusive " North" State was in striking 
contrast to its immediate neighbors — South 
Carolina in one direction, and Atlantic Vir- 
ginia on the other. Politically, when the 
pennons of Clay and Calhoua rode the gale, 
the vote and voice of North Carolina was 
ever given for the great Kentucky leader. 
Let us accept these omens for the Winter 
campaign, which will open with the triumph 
of the Union and Constitution on the Cum- 
berland heights of East Tennessee. 

Toe Gap onoe crowned by the flag of the 
Republic — a Provisional Government or- 
ganized at Knoxville — the spinal column of 
the rebel confederacy broken by the occu- 
pation of the rails between Memphis and 



Richmond, why might we not expect that 
another camp at Watauga, in North Caro-. 
lina, would precede another march along the 
Catawba, another crossing of the Cherokee 
Ford of Broad river, and, now in 1861 as 
on Oct. 7, 1780, a victorious counterpart of 
the struggle and victory of " King's Moun- 
tain?" 

X. 

NORTHERN GEORGIA. 

Over one-fifth of the area of Gerrgia, at 
least 12,000 square miles, slavery only exists 
by the usurpation O; the Cotton Aristocracy 
of the Lowland Districts, of the State. I 
enumerate the counties, soon to be appro- 
priated to Free Labor, as follows : 

Counties. Free. Slace Ci.tfon, 

400 lb. bales. 

Atadison 3,763 1,933 2,219 

HaPD* 

Franklm 9 070 2.3S9 2.653 

Jackson 6,803 2,941 1,202 

Banks* 

HM 7,370 1,336 205 

Habersham... 7,^75 1,218 36 

Kabiin 2,3<38 110 

Towns * 

Union 6,955 278 

lAimpkiu 7,995 939 U 

Dawson * 

Forsvth 7,812 1,027 472 

Milton * 

Cherokee 11,650 1,157 272 

I'ickens * 

Gilmer. S,236 200 

Faunin * 

Murphv * 

White field*... 

Gordon 5,15G 82S ISi 

Crtss 10,271 3 OOS 2. 385 

Floyd 5 2i'2 2,999 1.976 

Chatioga '\]o\ 1 680 l.mS 

Walker 11, -408 1,064 359 

Catoosa * 

Dade 2,552 143 15 

* rounties marked with an asterisk orj^an- 
ized after the census of 1850, of which the fbre- 
goiug are returns. 

Throughout all Northern Georgia the 
Blue Ridge landscape presents its varied 
charms. 

No where on this continent can a more 
attractive succession of Cataracts be found, 
each commemorated by a musical Cherokee 
compound, — Toccoa, Tallulah, IJiawafsee, 
Ammicalolah and others innumerable. 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



15 



Hfre, also, the EubterrraDsao throes 
which have developed the Appalachian 
chain have cast to the surface rich veins of 
golfl. Tbese mines were famous before the 
California discovery, and a branch of the 
United Slates mint is situated at Dahlonega. 

We might linger in the vale of Nacoochee, 
on Mounts Yonah and Currahce, and in the 
dark shadows of chasms and ravines, thun- 
dering with torrents, but for an apprehen 
sion that description would be inadequate. 

XI. 

NORTHEAST ALABAMA. 

This statistical review, already extended 
beyond my first purpose, would be incom- 
plete, without an enumeration of the Ala- 
bama Highlands. The Southern spurs of 
the AUeghanies give au elevation to the 
following counties, which makes them more 
reaiaikabio for the production of the North- 
ern cereals than of the leading Southern 
staples : 

CottwWes. Free. Slave. Cotto'" , 4001b 

Cherokee. .12,170 1,091 2,717 

D^Krtlb .. 7,730 506 260 

Marshall.. 7,952 8G8 1.966 

Jackson ..11.754 2,2il2 2,382 

W organ .. 6 6C6 3.437 4,777 

Madison . . 1 l,ii37 14.3-'9 20,8s8 

Limestone. 8 399 8,003 14,809 

Lavvreace.. 8,342 6,858 13,127 

Id will be observed that the three coun 
tifs last named have a slave population, in 
the case of Madison exceeding, and in 
Limestone and Lawrence nearly equal to 
the number of free inhabitants. They 
would seem to be an exception to oar for- 
mer generalization, and are only included be- 
cause there is other evidence that Athens 
in Limestone County, and Huntsville in 
Morgan County, were to the last possible 
moment, the hef.dquarters of resistance to 
the Montgomery consj irators. It was the 
Union vote ot ibese Highland counties, 
notwithftandir.g the number of slaves in 
some of them, which would inevitably have 
been rolled down in coademcatiou of an 



Ordinance of Secession. This was well 
known by Yancey and his associates, and 
it was to avoid this revelation of their 
weakness over a compact and populous area 
of the State, which was in direct communi- 
cation with East Tennessee, that they refus- 
ed the ordeal of the ballot upon the consum- 
mation of their treason to the Uuion. 

I estimate that the District which could 
readily be rallied in support of a loyal organ- 
ization of the Government of Alabama, with 
its capital at Huntsville, to be equal to the 
area of New Jersey, or 8,320 square mi^es. 
With the occupation ot the Alleghanies by 
an Army of the Union, and such a base of 
operations.civil and military, in North Ala- 
bama, a C)unter Revolution in that State 
would not be difficult of accomplishment.* 

XII. 

A WORD OF RECAPITULATION. 

Have I not established the fact, that over 
extensive districts of the insurrectionary- 
States, Slavery sits like an incubus — not de- 
sired by the people and alien to the climate 
and agriculture ? It is a tyranny imposed 
not an institution adopted by a majority of 
the People. 'I'bese districts are c jntermin.^ 
ous, an immeufie oape of Northern soil and 
scenery, dividing the Atlantic from the Mis- 
sissippi seats of the rebellion. Of what, 
computed in square miles, has AUeghania 
been fonnd to consist? 



*Thc Milwaukee (Wisronisni) Stntintl of 
June 3, contained a confiiuiution of these state- 
ments in regard to Noitliern Alabarnn. A gen- 
tleman returned fiom "a prolonged tour 
through the Cotton Hlates " cointr.uiiicated a 
narrative, whicli demonstrated that ttie people 
of Huntsville and vioiaitv were very hostile to 
secession in January, that "at Athens the 
StafS and Strijies floated over the Court House 
long after the Stale had enacted the farce of 
secession," and that, ereu in May, open oppo- 
sition to secession existed " ?"« the mimntain 
poitioTv of A/ubama, a large tract of country 
trnbracing alxiot one third of the State lyivg 
adjacerit to and South of the Tennessee valley." 
The w'iter added "Is' their mountain fast- 

NE.SSES THET DO NOT ACKNOWLKDGE THK SoUTH- 
£.BN CONFBDEKACY OK THE TOWEB OF ITS RULBBS." 



16 



\ 



ALLEGHANIA. 



Districts, perhaps vew States. Square miles. 

West Virginia, or Kanawha 15.335 

Valley of Virginia, or Shenandoah. 10. 7;U 

Southwest Virginia 6,000 

East Tennessee 17,175 

West Carolina (North and South). . .16,87i 

Northern Geurgia 12,000 

Northeast Alabama 8,320 

85,835 
It will aid our appreciation of these fig- 
ures to present for the sake of comparison, 
the following burfaces of Northern States : 

Stites. Square, miles. 

New Jersey 8,320 

(Jotinecticut 4,674 

Rhode Island 1 3ii6 

Massachusetts 7,800 

Vermont 10.212 

New Hampshire 9,280 

41,592 
Here are twelve Senators, representing 
an area less by half and in no respect supe> 
rior m natural resources to the Mountain 
Districts of the South, whose voice and des- 
tiny have hitherto b?en suppressed by the 
Slave Aristocracy of the Lowlands. As 
these papers pasg throngb the press, a 
"V\ heeling Convention gives indications of 
firm adherence to their favorite organizati^-n 
of a Slate of Kanawha. East Tennessee 
may insist on like independence of the Slave- 
ry-ridden counties of the Mississippi. And 
the example may be still more contagions. 
Is New England prepared to neutralize 
her excessive representation on the floor ol 
the Senate, by political organizations along 
the Southern sp'irsof the Alleghanies? 

— Perhaps a Revision of the Map of the 
United States, State and Territorial, may 
yet suggest a practical solution, a political 
equilibrium, of vital interest to the restora- 
tion of the Union. 

XIII. 

FACTS OF AGRTCULTURK. 

Hitherto, social statistics and natural 
scenery have been prominently presented, in i 
connection with the Highlands of the South. 
Incidental jusiice has been done to thtir 
mineral resources. A supplementary sec- 
tion, oa the autberity of Olmstead, seems 



requisite to show the agricultural capacity 
of the mountain districts of Alabama, Geor- 
gia, Tennessee and the (Jarolinas. 

As already stated, the climate of this re- 
gion, as a result of altitude, resembles that 
of Long Island, Southern New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. It is perhaps more variable, 
but the extremes of heat and cold are leas 
than are reached in those more Northern 
and less elevated regions. The crops are 
the sanoe. 

The summer pasture continues about six 
months The hills generally afford an ex- 
cellent range, and the mast is usually good, 
much being provided by the chestnut, as 
well as the oak and smaller nut-bearing 
trees. The soil of the hills is a rich dark 
vegetable deposit, and they are cultivated 
upon very steep slopes. It is said to wash 
and gully but little, being very absorptive. 
Even the central countits of Kentucky are 
not more favorable to the abundant growth 
of the richest, grasses. 

Horses, mu.es, cattle and swine are raised 
extensively, and sheep and goals in small 
numbers throughout the mountains, and af- 
ford almost the on'y articles of agricultural 
export. Mining and stock-raising will al- 
ways be the leading forms of industry. 

Often upon the mountain summits, pla- 
teaux occuf", which, cleared ot the noble 
growth of forest trees, can be cultivated. 

Although these valleys have been, for a 
century, the h'ghway of emigration from the 
Southern Atlantic to the Miwoissippi States, 
yet slavery has made no permanent lodg-. 
ment in them. Unquestionably, thirty 
years ago, the proportion of slave to free 
was greater than in I860, We have ob- 
served this feebleness of tenure in 1850. Its 
continuance was possible, if Slavery had not 
precipitated rebellion. Now there will be 
no other result than the complete dedication 
of the Alleghanies to Free Labor, of which 
the armed columns of the Union are an irre- 
Bistable crusade. 



THE HIGHLANDS OF^THE SOUTH. 



17 



XIV. 

THE PROSPECT OP MANUFACTURES. 

Closely allied to the natural advantages 
for the cheap production of bread and wheat 
is the prospect of a Home Market when the 
mineral wealth of the Alleghany ranges 
shall be developed by the introduction of 
Manufactures. For these establishments of 
skilled industry, the innumerable cascades, 
linking cliffs to valleys, are an important fa- 
cility. 

Indeed, what raw material is wanting, in 
this great central crown of our Atlantic 
coast, to the most diversified application of 
manufacturing skill. The soil is burthened 
with a profuse and valuable sylva — coal- 
fields exceeding the supply of Great Britain 
are accessible from Virginia to the border 
of Alabama, and are flanked on the eastern 
slope of the mountains by an extension of 
the anthracite treasures of Lehigh and Read- 
ing — salt-springs, with hundreds of me- 
dicinal fountains, constantly meet the trav- 
eler — while gold, copper, iron, slate, zinc, 
and marble, have already been discovered, 
in quantity and quality amply remunera-? 
tive. 

No reason can be assigned why the con~ 
centration of population and the accumula- 
tion of wealth, experienced within the last 
twenty years in Pennsylvania and Ohio, 
should not be the development of another 
generation, through the whole extent of the 
Southern Highlands. All analogy justifies 
the expectation, if Free Institutions shall be 
the boon of this eventful period to AUe- 
ghania.* 



* In corroboration of the statements above 
and previously, of the physical geography and 
political sympathy of the great Alleghany in- 
terior of the country, an eminent divine of 
Kentucky has lately published a sketch of the 
"Mountain Empire" of the South which is 
annexed us Appendix No. 3, under the title of 
" Geographical Obstacles to Disunion." 

3 



XV. 

THE UNI^^N MEN OP THE SOUTH. 

" Abdiel, faithful found 
Among the faithless, faith lul only he ; 
Among the innumerable false, unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, unlenified, 
His loyally he kept, bis love, his zeal ; 
Nor number, nor example, with liiiu wrought 
To swerve from truth, or change his constant 
mind." 

— Paradise Lost, BookV. 

How suggestive these words, lioru the an- 
gel Raphael's " full relation " to ihe " prime 
of men," of the secession of the Rebel An- 
gels. They have passed into a shibboleth 
of truth and loyalty, in every great emer- 
gency of nations. Nor is it inappropriate 
to illustrate the firm constancy of the Aiou 
men of the South by these memorable nnes 
of Milton. 

As we read of Andrew Johnson, and his 
" hope deferred" of an advance upon "Cum- 
berland Gap :" of the uprising lor the Union 
iQ East Tennessee, Western Caroaaa and 
Northern Georgia : and of Brownlow's de- 
cisive victory, at the head of 30U0 troops, 
over a rebel entrenchment, our hearts beat 
tribute to these noble men of the Allegha- 

nies 

" unmoved 
Unshaken, unseduced, unierrified:" 

and we welcome the assurance of President 
Lincoln's late message, that a military high- 
way will be opened between •' the loyal re- 
gions of East Tennessee and Western North 
Carolina, and other faithful parts of the 
Union." 

The object of this publication will be sat- 
isfied if I convince the reader, that an im- 
mense Highland promontory, with an area 
equal to Pennsylvania and Ohio, extends 
from the borders of those States into the 
heart of the Rebellion : and that within 
this Switzerland of the South, Nature is at 
war with Slavery, and the People are ready 
to strike for Liberty and Union. If so, 
will not the Government recognize Relief 
to the Lojal South as the first great emer- 



18 



ALLEGHANIA. 



gency, and as the most urgent expediency in 
the suppression of the insurrec m. 

As we review the events of lUe year, we 
find a satisfactory illustration of a policy so 
obvious, in the campaign of Western Vir- 
ginia. There, with the first outbreals of 
hostilities, the nation responded to the Ma- 
cedonian cry of loyal Yirginia for arms and 
a leader : McClellan's strategy and the 
energy of Ohio and Indiana troops sup- 
pressed Secession within sixty days : and, 
as a political result, a Convention now sits 
at Wheeling and will decree the regenera- 
tion of the «' Old Dominion" by an act of 
emancipation. Who can doubt, with ade- 
quate protection ii:om the general authority, 
th^iPl Cumberland Convention, assembled 
at Knoxville or Jonesborough, would make 
a similar record ? 

" Counter-Revolution " is the key to the 
speedy and permanent restoration of the 
Republic one and indivisible. It is the 
great responsibility of this crisis that the 
President and his j^inisters shall omit noth- 
ing, and do every thing possible, to advance 
this great result. Of course, the strength of 
the Nation, even to a Million of Men and a 
Thousand Millions of treasure, muse be 
•wielded, promptly and resolutely. " The 
Union must be preserved and hence all in- 
dispensable means must be employed." But, 
with our manifestations of force, calm and 
far-sighted statesmanship must be combin- 
ed, Onr rulers must be encouraged and 
sustained, not passionately denonnced, if they 
show solicitude and care " that the inevitable 
conflict for the suppression of the insurrection 
shall not degenerate into a violent and re- 
morseless revolutionary struggle." 

In accordance with these suggestions, let 
the work of reconstruction go on, concur 
rently with the heroic struggle of the Army 
of the Union. And what an opportunity is 
presented by the situation of the Alleghany 
Districts, which we have passed in brief re- 
view ? While Martial Law and the utmost 



vigor of constitutional methods, will be in- 
dispensable, for yet a considerable period, in 
the pacification of the alluvial coasts of the 
Atlantic, the Mexican (iulf, and the Lower 
Mississippi, a far diSerent succession of 
events will follow the victorious advance of 
the Army of the West through the Cum- 
berland Gap. 

With the consideration of these contin- 
gencies, I propose to terminate the present 
discussion. 

XVI. 

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

By order of the President of the United 
States, bearing date November 14th , 1861, 
" any person attempting, within the State of 
Virginia, under the alleged authority of the 
said Commonwealth, to execute any official 
powers of a civil nature, within the limits of 
any of the commands of the occupying forces 
of the United Siates, unless in pursuance of 
the declaration and ordinances of the Con- 
vention assembled at Wheeling, on the 13th 
day of June, and the acts of the General 
Assembly held by authority of said Conven-i 
tion, shall be treated as hostile to the United 
States, and such person shall be taken into 
military custody." 

This brief missive from the office of the 
Adjutant General, countersigned by Major 
General McClellan, U vital to the progress 
of counter-revolution in the South. 

Give the country a victory upon the 
Cumberland Mountains, and what might 
we not expect within sixty days ? 

1. A loyal State Government of Tennes- 
see instantaneously sustained by the voices 
and arms of three Congressional Districts, 
with its Legislature assembled at Knoxville, 
and the United States District and Circuit 
Courts in full operation : 

2. In quick succession, the adjacent dis- 
tricts of Carolina, North and South, would 
organize and assemble a Convention of the 



THE HIGHLANDS OF THE SOUTH. 



19 



people, perhaps meeting in Mecklenburgh 
county, of old Revolutionary memory :* 

3. It would only be necessary to " hold 
occupy and possess " Dahnolega, where a 
Mint of the United States is established, to 
inaugurate a loyal organization of the State 
of Georgia, supported throughout the High- 
lands of the State, and co-operating eEFect- 
ivfcly with the military and naval occupation 
of the Atlantic coast : 

4. While we have already assigned the 
grounds of expectation, that at Huntsville, 
in Madison county, a similar Assembly, pop- 
ular and Legislative, would speedily vindi- 
cate the Constitutional attitude of the State 
of Alabama against the Montgomery usurp- 
ation. 

In all these ^!tates there is a question of 
local policy, which constitutes a line of cleav- 
age between the slave aristocracy of the 
plantations and the free white population of 
the mountains. As in "Western Virginia, 
so in the Southern Alleghany districts, it is 
a powerful ally of the Union in the present 
crisis. The Highlands demand the white 
basis of representation — the Lowlands grasp 
at the coHtrol of government through the 
representation of slave property. Hitherto, 
the " effort to place capital above labor in 
the structure of government," has been but 
too successful, exciting profound dissatisfac- 
tion amono: the disfranchised counties of the 



*Charlotte, the seat of Mecklenburgh, is 
within the hill-region of North Carolina, not 
more than a day's journey from King's Moun- 
tain battle field. 



interior ; and since the |rebellion, the slave 
aristocracy propose further restrictions 
upon the people. Thus it will be seen, 
that a conflict of ideas, fundamental 
and irrepressible, will find expression by the 
re-establishment of the governments of Ten- 
nessee, Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, 
and their potential support by the National 
Government against the domestic violence 
of the rebel leaders. 

If, in July, the country had been content 
with a defensive attitude on the Potomac, 
and McClellan had rapidly pushed the 
success of West Virginia to the Relief of 
Tennessee, we would now witness the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of such a Counter 
Revolution again- 1 the despotism of Slavery 
and Disunion. 

I have presented the geographical argu- 
ment. Its social and political correlatives — 
the extinction of slavery and the triumph of 
the Union in AUeghania — are facts clearly 
imminent, and soon to be accomplished. 

With the march of the Legions of the 
Union, and the stern logic of Martial Law — 
with a proper response lo McClellan's ap- 
peal for " confidence, patience, and forbear- 
ance" on the part of the American People— 
and finally, with the important cooperation 
of State Legislation at Wheeling, Knoxville, 
Mecklenberg, Dahlonega and Huntsville, 
this Rebellion will first be banished from 
the Highlands of the South, to be crushed 
forever on the Cotton and Rice fields from 
which it sprung. 

May such be the Record, as it would be 
the Nemesis, of its History 1 



APPENDIX. 



I. 



From the Louisville Journal. 
GRANDPA NATHAN, 



RESPECTFULLY IN3CKIBED TO GEN. 
COIIBS. 



LESUE 



BY W, D. GALLAGHER. 
I. 

By the beech and hickory fire 

Grandpa Nathan sat at night, 
With details of march'nj armies, 

Aai the news ofmany a fight. 
When he laid aside the paper, 

Though its contents he had told. 
He was plied with many questions 

By the young and by the old. 
It's a war the most infernal ! 

(Grandpa Nathan made reply,) 
But the Legions of the Union 

Soon will crush it out, or die 1 
If I only had the vi^or 

Of just twenty years ago. 
How I'd leap into my saddle I 

How I'd fly to meet the foe I 

n. 

Nannie Hardin, dearest daughter, 

There's a spirit now abroad 
That's akin to whatsoever 

Is at enmity with God. 
It has wrought upon a portion 

Of the people of the land, 
Till they almost thiok they're honest 

In the treason Ihey have plann'd. 
It has struck the sea with rapine. 

It has tinged its shores with blood, 
And it rolls and surgen inland 

Like ades lating flood. 
It has rent the nearest kindred — 

E'en tie mother and the son ; 
Bat, as God's a God of Justice, 

Its career will soon be run, 



in. 

There's a camp in Wickliffe's meadow, 

Less than eighteen miles away— 
John, at your age I coula make it 

Twice 'twixt now and break of day ;— 
Fill yoar buggy up with baskets, 

Fill each basket to the brim. 
Sweep the pantry of its choicest. 

Till the ohelves are lean and slim ; 
Take a jug or two of apple, 

For these chill November damps 
Oft benumb the weary sentries 

As they guard the sleeping camps ; 
Drive the get of old Sarpedon — 

For the glory of his sires 
He will make the camp at Wicklifife's 

Ere they stir the morning firss. 

IV. 

Tell the soldier of Kentucky, 

And the soldier from abroad 
Who has come to fight the battle 

Of his country and his God — 
Tell them one who on the Wabash 

Fought with Daviess when he fell. 
And who bled at Meiga, where Dudley 

Met the painted hosts of hell — 
One who fought with Hart at Raisin, 

And with Johnson on the Thames, 
And with Jackson at New Orleans, 

Where we won immortal names, 
Seads them from his chimney corner 

Such fair greeting as he may. 
With a few small creature comforts 

For this drear December day. 

V. 
Tell them, he has watched this quarrel 

From its outbreak until now. 
And, with hand upon bis heart- beat, 

And God's light upon his brow. 
He invokes their truest manhood, 

The fall prowess of their youth. 
In this battle of the Nation 

For the right, and for the truth. 



//?» 



APPENDIX 



21 



Thus enjoins each T&liant spirit 
That would scorn to he a slave : 

" By ths toll and blood your fathers 
In the cause of Freedom spent, 

By the memory of your mothers 
And the noble aid they lent ; — 

VI. 

By the blessings God has showered 

On this birthright of the free, 
Give to Heaven a reverent spirit, 

Bend to Heaven a willing knee, 
And in silence, 'mid the pauses 

Of the hymn and of the prayer. 
To the God of Hosts appealing. 

By the God of Battles swear — 
Swear to rally 'round the standard 

With our nation that was born. 
With its stars of world-wide glory, 

And the stripes that non« may scorn I 
Swear to Bght the fight forced on us. 

While an armed foe stirs abroad ; 
Swear to fight the fight of Freedom, 

Of the Union, and of God 1 " 

VII. 
Ah I he drives the young Sarpedon— 

Drives the son of glorious sires. 
And he'll make the camp at Wicklifife's 

E'er they build the morning fires. 
Do you know, child, I am prouder 

Of the spirit of your boy, 
Than oi any other grandson 

That e'er brought his mother joy ? 
And so now, good Nannie Hardin, 

For the night you'd best retire : 
Ab for me, my child, I'm wakeful, 

And I'll still sit by the fire. 
Oh, my soul is in the battles 

Of the Wabash and the Thames, 
Where the prowecs of Kentucky 

Won imperishable nimes I 

VIII. 
I must see the cimp at Wickliffe's — 

Nannie, you as well can go ; 
I must ming'e with the soldiers 

Who have come to meet our foe ; 
I must talk to them of battles 

By the ranks of freedom won. 
And of acts of valor ventured , 

4nd of deeds cf daring done. 
Oh, I'll take them to the ramparts 

Whece their fathers fought of old. 
For my spirit now surveys them. 

As a chart that is unroU'd, — 
And I'll show them in the mirror 

Of the clouds and of the skies, 
Where the hosts of glory marshal, 

And the flag of glory flies. 



IS. 

Take a blanket, dear, from Effle, 

And a comfort here and there. 
And from my good bed and wardrobe 

Strip whatever I can spare. 
Hunt the house from top to bottom ; 

And let all the neighbors know 
What they need , the men who shield them 

From the fury of the foe. 
Be up early in the morning ; 

Ask of all what they will send 
To the camp in WickliSe's meadow 

Where each soldier is a friend. 
'Twere a sin , whilst there is plenty, 

(Let us never feel the taunt !) 
That the Legions of the Union, 

Braving danger, were in want. 

X. 
Write at once to Hatty Shelby. 

And — for both ot them are there — 
Send a line to Alice Dudley, 

And a word for Kuth Adair ; 
Then to morrow write to Dorcas, 

And anon to MoUie Todd : 
Say they've work now for their country, 

For their freedom and their God : 
And if only half the spirit 

That their mothers had is theirs. 
There'll be rapid work with needles 

And sharp rummaging up stairs, 
Oh, it stirs the blood of seventy. 

Wherever it survives. 
Just to touch the chain of memory 

01 the old Kentucky wives 1 

XI. 

In a day or two — at farthest 

When the present rain is done — 
You and I will take the carriage, 

With the rising of the sun, 
And we'll spend a day or longer 

With the soldiers in their camps. 
Taking stores that best may shield them 

From the chill November damps. 
Oh, I'll cheer them on to battle— 

And I'll stir each lofty soul 
As I paint the fields of honor 

Where the drums of giory roll I 
And I'll bid them never falter. 

While there's treason still abroad, 
In this battle for the Nation 

For our Union and for God. 

xn. 

One who fought upon the Wabash 
By Joe Daviess when he fell. 

And who bled at Meigs with Dudley, 
Where we met the hosts of hell, — 



22f 



APPENDIX. 



Tell them on9 whose years are sinking 

To the quiet of the grave, 
One who fought with Hart at Raisin, 

And with Johnson on the Thames, 
And with Jackson at New Orleans, 

Where we won immortal names, 
Will he listened to with patience. 

By the heroes now at hand, 
Who have rush'd on to our rescue. 

In this peril of the land. 
By the memory of our Fathers, 

By the Brave, and by the Just, 
This Rebellion shall be vanquish'd, 

Though each traitor bite the dust I 



11. 

REVOIiUTIONAKY BATTLE OF 
KIXG'S WlOUNTAirV. 

The story of the battle of King's Moun- 
tain is thus told in the words of the com- 
manding officer: "On receiving intelligence," 
he says in his report, "that Major Ferguson 
had advanced up as high as Gilbert Town, 
in Rutherford County, and threatened to 
cross the mountains to the western waters, 
Col. William Campbell with 400 men from 
Washington County, Yirginia, Colonel 
Isaac Shelby with 240 men from Sullivan 
County, N. C, and Lieut. Colonel John 
Sevier with 240 men of Washington Coun- 
ty. "N". C assembled at Watauga, on the 
:-L>tJiOt rj ,)tember (1780), where they were 
joined by (Jol. Charles McDowell with 160 
'rtvn froiii lue counties of Burke and Ruth- 
ford, having fled before the enemy to the 
western waiters. We began our march on 
the 26th, and on the 30th we were joined by 
Col. Cleaveland, on the Catawba River, with 
3.50 men from the counties of Wilkes and 
Surry. No one officer having properly a 
right to the command in chief, on the 1st 
of October we despatched an express to 
Major General Gates, informing him of our 
situation, and requesting him to send a gen- 
eral officer to take command of the whole. 
"In the mean time Col. Campbell was 
chosen to act as commandant, until such 
general officer should arrive. We marched 
to the Coiopens on Broad River, in South 
Carolina, where we were joined by Col. 
James Williams, with 400 men, on the eve- 
ning of the 6th of October, who informed 



us that the enemy lay encamped somewhere 
near the Cherokee Fork of Broad River, 
about 30 miles distant from us. By a 
council of principal officers it was then 
thought advisible to pursue the enemy that 
night with 900 of the best horsemen, and 
have the weak horses and footmen to follow 
as fast as possible. We began our march 
with 908 of the best men about 8 o'clock 
the same evening, and marching all night, 
came up with the enemy about 3 o,clock, 
p. M., of the 7th, who lay encamped on the 
top of King's Mountain, 12 miles north of 
the Cherokee Ford, in the confidence that 
they would not be forced from so advanta- 
geous a pass. Previous to the attack, on 
our march the following disposition was 
made: Col. Shelby's regiment formed a 
column in the centre on the left, Col. Camp- 
bell's regiment another on the right, while 
part of Col. Cleaveland's regiment, headed 
in front by Major Joseph Winston and Col- 
onel Sevier formed a large column on the 
right wing. The other part of Cleaveland's 
regiment, headed by Colonel Cleaveland 
himself, and Col. Williams' regiment com- 
posed the left wing. In this order we ad- 
vanced, and got within a quarter of a mile 
of the enemy before we were discovered. 
Col. Shelby's and Col. Campbell's regiments 
began the attack, and kept up a fire on the 
enemy, while the right and left wings were 
advancing to surround them, which was 
done in about five minutes, and the fire be- 
came general all around. The engagement 
lasted an hour and five minutes, the greater 
part of which time a heavy and incessant 
fire was kept up on both sides. Our men 
in some parts where the regulars fought, 
were obliged to give way a distance, two 
or three times, but rallied and returned 
with additional ardor to the attack. The 
troops upon the right having gained the 
summit of the eminence, obliged the enemy 
to retreat along the top of the ridge to 
where Col. Cleaveland commanded, and 
were there stopped by his brave men. A 
flag of truce was immediately hoisted by 
Captain Depeyster, the commanding officer 
(Major Fergerson having been killed a little 
before), for a surrender. Our fire immedi- 
ately ceased, and the enemy laid do^Ti their 
arms (the greater part of them charged) 
and surrendered themselves prisoners at 
discretion. It appears from their own pro- 
vision returns for that day, found in their 



^a 



APPENDIX. 



23 



camp, that their whole force consisted of 
1,125 men. * * Total loss of the British, 
1,105 men, killed wounded, or made pris- 
oners." 

" No battle during the war," says Mr. 
Lossing, in his Field Book where we find 
the preceding report of the struggle at 
King's Mountain," was more obstinately 
contested than this : for the Americans 
were greatly exasperated by the cruelties of 
the Tories, and to the latter it was a ques- 
tion of life and death. It was with diffi- 
culty that the Americans, remembering Tar- 
leton's cruelty at Buford's defeat, could be 
restrained from slaughter, even after quar- 
ter was asked. In addition to the loss of 
men on the part of the enemy mentioned in 
the report, the Americans took from them 
1,500 stand of arms. The loss of the 
Americans in killed was only twenty, but 
they had a great number wounded." Bat- 
tle fought Oct. 7, 1780. 



III. 

GEOGRaPHICAIi OBSTACLES TO 
OISUNION. 

The last number of the Danville (Ky.) 
Review contains an able article from the 
pen of the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, 
D.D., in which the distinguished writer thus 
forcibly restates the grounds on which it 
may be affirmed that the geography of the 
continent forbids a permanent separation of 
the United States, on any line commonly 
suggested as the possible basis of a territo- 
rial partition between the National Gov- 
ernment and the insurgent " Confederacy :" 

" Whoever will look at a map of the 
United States will observe that Louisiana 
lies on both sides of the Mississippi river, 
and that the States of Arkansas and Missis- 
sippi lie on the right and left banks of this 
great stream— eight hundred miles of whose 
lower course is thus controlled by these 
three States, unitedly inhabited by hardly 
as many white people as inhabit the city of 
New York. Observe, then, the country 
drained by this river and its affluents, coro- 
mencing with Miesouri on its west bank 



and Kentucky on its east bank. There are 
nine or ten powerful States, large portions 
of three or four others, several large Terri- 
tories — in all a country as large as all Eu^ 
rope, as fine as any under the sun, already 
holding many more people than all the re- 
volted States, and desticed to be one of the 
most populous and powerful regions of the 
earth. Does any one suppose that these 
powerful States — this great and energetic 
popuiaiion — will ever make a peace that 
shall put the lower course of this single and 
mighty national outlet to the sea in the 
hands of a foreign Government far weaker 
than themselves ? If there is any such per- 
son he knows little of the past history of 
mankind, and will perhaps excuse us for 
remindiug him that the people of Kentucky, 
before they were constituted a State, gave 
formal notice to the Federal Government, 
when Gen. Washington was President, that 
if the United States did not require Louisi- 
ana they would themselves conquer it. The 
mouths of the Mississippi belong, by the gift 
of God, to the inhabitants of its great val- 
ley. Nothing but irresistible force can dis- 
inherit them. 

"Try another territorial aspect of the 
case. There is a bed of mountains abut- 
ting on the left bank of the Ohio, which 
covers all Western Virginia, and all Eastern 
Kentucky, to the width, from east to west, 
in those two States, of three or four hun- 
dred miles. These mountains, stretching 
southwestwardly, pass entirely through Ten- 
nessee, cover the jback parts of North 
Carolina and Georgia, heavily invade the 
northern part of Alabama, anr^ "-'/ , r;o. 
ure even in the back parts of 's 
Una and the eastern parts of 
having- a course of perhaps se\. ^... 

hundred miles, and running far roqw. of the 
northern limit of profitable cotton culture. 
It is a region of 300,000 square miles, trench- 
ing upon eight or nine slave States, though 
nearly destitute of slaves itself ; trenching 
upon at least five cotton States, though rais- 
ing no cotton itself. The western part of 
Maryland and two-thirds of Pennsylvania 
are embraced in the northeastern continu- 
ation of this remarkable region. Can any 
thing that passes under the name of states- 
manship be more preposterous than the no- 
tion of permanent peace on this continent, 
founded on the abnegation of a common 
and paramount Government, and the idea 
of the supercilious domination of the cotton 



24t 



APPENDIX. 



interest and the slave trade over such a 
mouDtaiu empire, so located and so peopled ? 

" As a further proof of the utter irapos- 
sibili:y of peace except under a common 
Government, and at once an illustration of 
the import of what has just been stated, and 
the sufjgestion of a new and insuperable 
difficulty, let it be remembered that this 
great mountain region, throughout its gen- 
eral course, is more loyal to the Union than 
any other portion of the slave States. It 
is the mountain counties of Maryland that 
have held treason in check in that State ; it 
is forty mountain counties in Western Vir- 
ginia tbat have laid the foundation of a new 
and loyal commonwealth ; it is the mountain 
^^~ "of Kentucky that first and most 

fdy took up arms for the Union ; it is 
fue mountain region of Tennessee that alone 
in that dishonored State, lurnished martyrs 
to the sacred cause of freedom ; it is the 



mountain people of Alabama that boldly 
stood out against the Confederate Govern- 
ment till their own leaders deserted and be- 
trayed them. Now, is the nation prepared 
under any imaginable circumstances, to sac- 
rifice these heroic men, as a condition of 
peace conquered from them by traitors? 
Will the nation sell the blood — we will not 
say of a race of patriots — but of even a 
single one of them ? The representatives 
of these men sit in Congress ; their Senators 
are in the Capitol. Will the rebel States 
dismember themselves that cotton may have 
peace ? Will the nation turn its back on 
the five border slave States, deliver over 
Western Virginia to the sword, and cover 
its own infamy under the luins of the Con- 
stitution ? Never, never I Our sole altern 
ative is victory. To know this is to render 
victory certain. ' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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